Functionalized Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles for Magnetic Fluid Hyperthermia Application in Cancer Treatment

Abstract

In this work, we report the synthesis of functionalized superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONS) to use them as nano medicine to treat cancer via magnetic fluid hyperthermia-based therapy. For this purpose, we initially synthesize iron oxide nanoparticles by chemical co-precipitation method with its surface modified by pluronic (F-127) polymer. The synthesized SPIONS were investigated for their structure, morphology and magnetic properties. The crystal structure and morphology were characterized by X-ray diffraction technique (XRD) and Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), the interaction between pluronic (F-127) and Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The average particle size of Fe₃O₄ sample was ~8.95 nm. The magnetic measurements revealed that, as prepared magnetic nanoparticles are superparamagnetic in nature and show high saturation magnetizations ~106 emu/gm for 10 K and 87 emu/gm for 300 K which is one of the important features of iron oxide for their use in hyperthermia therapy. The heat dissipation ability of Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles was determined using induction heating system. The biocompatibility of Fe₃O₄ was determined by measuring their cytotoxicity.